by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

by Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY Sports

Even if New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez is telling the truth, and never received performance-enhancing drugs from a South Florida wellness clinic, the American public will never believe him, Rusty Hardin, Roger Clemens' attorney, told USA TODAY Sports.

"The sports world has turned the assumption of innocence on its head,'' Hardin said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "I am thoroughly convinced there is no way an innocent ballplayer can get out in front of these allegations.

"I truly know nothing about Alex Rodriguez, but do you think anybody is going to believe Alex Rodriguez now? Nobody is going to listen to him or any of these guys accused.

"The presumption is so strong that they did it, and they're lying. The only way Alex Rodriguez is going to get a fair shake is by going to court and proving it.

"Who the hell wants to wish that on anyone? Even if acquitted, the majority of the sports world still is going to assume he did it.''

Clemens, represented by Hardin, vehemently denied Senator George Mitchell's 2007 report on steroids that he used performance-enhancing drugs. He filed a defamation lawsuit against his former trainer, Brian McNamee, swore under oath in 2008 that he never took steroids, and after being indicted by a grand jury in 2010 on charges of making false statements to Congress, was found not guilty last June on all six counts of lying to Congress.

"That was the only way Roger could get a fair hearing,'' Hardin said, "but like Roger told Congress, 'He still lost his innocence.' People still don't believe him.

"The problem now is that so many players deny it, and later on admit it, so the accusation carries additional weight.''

Hardin declined to publicly say the advice he would give to Rodriguez if he indeed is innocent. Yet, if the Miami New Times report is accurate that Rodriguez purchased performance-enhancing drugs in 2009 and 2012 from Biogenesis, a clinic in Coral Gables, Fla., Hardin says that Rodriguez should follow the lead of Yankees starter Andy Pettitte in 2007, and publicly admit his transgressions.

"If you did it,'' Hardin says, "the way Andy Pettitte went about it is exactly the way to go. You admit it, accept responsibility, and move on.

"If you didn't do it, then you've got follow your conscience and recognize it's not going to work. People are too cynical to believe you.

"What we did with Roger didn't work. He denied it from every rooftop he could. What we discovered with Roger was that his denial just brought more scorn. After awhile, we just shut up. There was nothing more we could offer from the dialogue.

"But I will say that if a person didn't do it, they shouldn't cave in and say they did it, just to make it go away.''

Hardin realized even after being victorious in trial that the public perception of Clemens wouldn't be dramatically altered, which was confirmed when the seven-time Cy Young award winner received only 37.6% of the vote in this year's the Hall of Fame ballot.

"I don't think nobody will ever look at the evidence before they cast their next vote,'' Hardin says. "The trouble is that Roger was lumped together with (Barry) Bonds and (Sammy) Sosa. The other two guys, everybody knows they did it. There's no question that Bonds did it. Everybody knows that. And Sosa proved positive. And since Roger was accused, he was thrown in the same group.''

Bonds testified that he never knowingly used steroids. Sosa tested positive in an anonymous 2003 test, according to the New York Times, but has denied that he ever used steroids.